Dear brothers and Cardiff,
Today’s celebration in Cardiff saw us celebrate the Appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves, and even though the beginning of school holidays impacted upon us, we still had a little over thirty adults gathered in Nazareth House to honour the Mother of God and the Father of Rus’ Monasticism and founder of what became today’s much-suffering and persecuted Kiev-Caves Brotherhood and Lavra.
We commend the brothers, with their abbot, Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl to the care of the Mother of God and the intercession of their spiritual-father and ancestor, St Anthony Pechersky.
We were very happy to greet our twins, Stefan and Tara on their 13th birthday and to be able to sing ‘Many Years’ and share birthday cake with them.
As already posted, I am very happy to have been able to spend time with the faithful in Wiltshire, having visited Chippenham and Lacock at the beginning of the week, and I am very happy that the autumn will see us hold a local Liturgy in the pilgrimage chapel of St Joseph of Arimathea, one of the ancient wayside chapels en route for Glastonbury, between Corsham and Box in Wiltshire. It will be lovely to celebrate a Liturgy in the doorstep of our Wiltshire and Somerset parishioners – Chapel Plaister being within the designation of our mission of St Vladimir, in Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds. Once a date has been agreed we will post details of our ‘pilgrimage Liturgy’.
The more immediate pilgrimage will commence in the morning as some of us make our way to Walsingham – England’s Nazareth – with some of the young brothers travelling on the coach with fellow pilgrims from South Wales Anglican Parishes. We are very grateful to Fr Dean Atkins for extending the invitation to us once again, and the seasoned Walsinghamites are very much looking to introducing the first-timers to a place that has been part of our spiritual consciousness for the greater part of our lives!
Sadly, this will preclude the celebration for the feast of St Olga in the morning, but we will honour both Saints Vladimir and Olga at the end of next Sunday’s Liturgy.
Having returned from Norfolk on Thursday, Friday will see the celebration of the Divine Liturgy for the feast of St Vladimir in Nazareth House Chapel at 11:00, after which we will repair to the local cafe.
I hope to hear the bulk of confessions before and after Great Vespers, which will be celebrated in Nazareth House at 17:00 on Saturday. Please email regarding Saturday confessions before 18:00 Thursday.
As announced, on 5th August, our August pilgrimage will see us visit St Anthony’s Well in the Forest of Dean before visiting St Mary’s Church at Kempley, with its extensive Romanesque frescoes and Norman roof. We will gather at St Anthony’s Well near Micheldean at 11:00 before a bring and share lunch at the home of a local parishioner, and then the onward journey to Kempley. Interested parties should email Tracy, our pilgrimage coordinator: t_sbrain@icloud.com
After a well attended discussion group on Friday, our next meeting – continuing to discuss prayer – will be on Friday 4th August, at 19:00 in Nazareth House.
As I wrote a few days ago, please only contact me with requests for prayers/intercessions and confessions over he nexts few days, and in case of emergencies, contact Fr Luke, whose contact details are to be found on our parish web-page: https://russianorthodoxchurchcardiff.com
With love in Christ – Hieromonk Mark